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Dear Paramount.... (1 Viewer)

Dick

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Romeo & Juliet (1968) on a BD has been very, very high on my Paramount Wish-List for quite some time. One could only further wish that this Oscar winner for Cinematography could see a restoration;
as the collective attributes of this film as a whole could generate a more than lengthy list.

The bitch of it is that scores of these films so far withheld from Blu-ray release in the U.S. have perfectly decent HD masters, ROMEO AND JULIET among them. France, in fact, has released this, as well as probably other countries:

https://www.amazon.fr/Roméo-Juliett...d=1497931278&sr=1-6&keywords=romeo+and+juliet

A bunch of other titles we in the U.S. have not gotten from Paramount are also out in Europe.

A SIMPLE PLAN (Germany): https://www.amazon.de/einfacher-Pla...&qid=1497931475&sr=1-1&keywords=a+simple+plan

CONQUEST OF SPACE
THE ELEPHANT MAN
THE NAKED PREY
WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE
and more.

Apparently Paramount is finding overseas licensing more lucrative than getting these out here in the U.S. *^%&!
 
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jcroy

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Has Paramount ever publically disclosed their reasons for not producing BD's of their important library of films?
Although I concur with Dick, it would only be fair to invite a Paramount spokesperson or insider to address any future plans.

I strongly suspect the only way something like this will ever happen, is if Paramount's in-house lawyers approve of what can be said and what can't be said.

With such a handicap (ie. not violating any financial legal regulations, etc ...), I wouldn't be surprised if "what can be said" ends up being a generic press release confirming what everybody here already knows (ie. no profit in releasing it themselves).
 
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PMF

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[...] Apparently Paramount is finding overseas licensing more lucrative than getting these out here in the U.S. *^%&!
Other countries, indeed. Which leads me to wonder why an American company doesn't want our American dollars, as well.
Meanwhile, if the French import of "Romeo & Juliet" is Region-Free, I'll scoop it up; as there is no point in waiting. Otherwise, I'll go with the UK import; once I've captured a Region-Free player.
 

PMF

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I strongly suspect the only way something like this will ever happen, is if Paramount's in-house lawyers approve of what can be said and what can't be said. [...]
"Ladies and Gentleman, please give a warm round of applause for the musical styling's of the Ass-ettes":drum:.
 

Andrew Budgell

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Romeo & Juliet (1968) on a BD has been very, very high on my Paramount Wish-List for quite some time.
One could only further wish that this Oscar winner for Cinematography could see a restoration;

Hi Philip, as I mentioned in my post earlier in this thread, it has undergone a 4K restoration, which was completed last year. You can read about it here. Unfortunately, the Blu-rays in other parts of the world were released prior to this restoration.
 
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PMF

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I wish they would release themselves or license out their recent 4K restorations of "A Place in the Sun" (1951) and "Romeo and Juliet" (1968).
Andrew, I obviously read your post too fast; as I thought that you had written, "I wish they would release a 4K of...".
Unbeknownst to me, I was not aware of this more than fantastic news. IMHO, "Romeo & Juliet" and "A Place in the Sun" were BOTH more than worthy of receiving their restorations;:thumbs-up-smiley:
and in 4K ta boot.:cool:
So, can anyone answer this? How are we lucky enough to have a pair of 4K restorations;:)
yet unlucky enough that we may never be able to view and enjoy their end results?:angry:
 
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jcroy

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"Ladies and Gentleman, please give a warm round of applause for the musical styling's of the Ass-ettes":drum:.


Along with the C-level suite executives' slush fund for cocaine, hookers, bribes, etc .... instead of releasing blurays.

;)
 

Dave Moritz

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Moving forward while there are many Paramount titles that need to at least make it to 1080p BD my focus is 4K UHD! And if the studio is going to do a 4K master then I would rather see a 4K UHD BD / BD release moving forward instead of putting out the BD version then it costing the studio more to release the 4K version later if it comes at all and costing the consumer to buy it all over again. There are some titles that may not be worth placing on 4K UHD BD just because it will not sell many copies and I get that. But there are the popular titles that Paramount should look at putting out on 4K UHD BD. And of course the studio needs to look at if the title is in good enough shape and will look good enough to place on 4K UHD BD.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Directors Cut (4K UHD/HD)
Star Trek: Wrath Of Khan - Directors Cut (4K UHD/HD)
Titanic (4K UHD/HD)
Transformers Series (4K UHD/HD)
Indiana Jones: Raiders Of The Lost Ark (4K UHD/HD)
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (4K UHD/HD)
War Of The Worlds (4K UHD/HD)
Ghost (4K UHD/HD)
Grease (1978) (4K UHD/HD)
Fatal Attraction (1987) (4K UHD/HD)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984) (4K UHD/HD)
The Godfather (1972) (4K UHD/HD)
Braveheart (1995) (4K UHD/HD)
Psycho (1960) (4K UHD/HD)
Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961) (4K UHD/HD)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) (4K UHD/HD)
Cleopatra (1934) (4K UHD/HD)
 

Josh Steinberg

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I've said it before, but Paramount is barely functional as a studio. They're essentially MGM at this point. There is no longer anyone that works there that has any ties to the history of the studio. It is essentially a holding company at this point. They don't really make movies anymore. Management is clueless, ownership doesn't care.

At this point, the only thing Paramount is interested in is making deals on their intellectual property (IP). Take the new Star Trek reboot films as an example. The original ten films were wholly produced by Paramount. The new films weren't. Here's basically how it goes now. Paramount owns the movie rights to Star Trek and agrees to supply those rights and handle domestic theatrical distribution. They outsource the production of the films to a diffeeent entity, Bad Robot, which is responsible for everything from the writing to the casting to the physical production and post-production. Paramount then brings in other companies like Skydance to actually pay for the film. For Star Trek Beyond, they took on additional financing partners in exchange for certain international rights. Paramount retains some control over the final product (for instance, they vetoed the destruction of the Enterprise in the '09 movie, which is why it's the Kelvin that gets destroyed at the start of the film, but no longer had an objection is 2016 when Beyond did it) but generally is hands off - they just don't want anyone messing with the brand to the point where they can't make any more deals for more sequels.

Look at Paramount's slate and it's almost entirely remakes, reboots or adaptions of properties that other divisions own. There's a Baywatch movie this summer, not because Paramount thought the world desperately needed it, but because the brand name allowed Paramount to make one of those deals where they license the name out and someone else does all the work.

To Dave Moritz specifically since he inquired about this title, Paramount has no interest in releasing the Directors Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Blu-ray. It doesn't exist in HD. If the studio is uninterested in even a Blu-ray release, it is extremely unlikely that it would be interested in a UHD release. The overwhelming majorly of the titles on your list are fortunately already available on Blu-ray - when you write "UHD/HD" that makes it sound like you'd accept either UHD or HD and most of those titles are currently available in HD. And Psycho is owned by Universal, not Paramount.
 

Ed Lachmann

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Unless I'm mistaken the Paramount films that reverted back from WB not long ago would include my beloved campy favorites, Lady in a Cage and The Rose Tattoo. I'd LOVE to own them in HD.
 

The Obsolete Man

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I've said it before, but Paramount is barely functional as a studio. They're essentially MGM at this point. There is no longer anyone that works there that has any ties to the history of the studio. It is essentially a holding company at this point. They don't really make movies anymore. Management is clueless, ownership doesn't care .

There is one major difference, though... MGM does remaster their films and license them out. Half of Shout Factory's output seems to be MGM films.
 

Josh Steinberg

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There is one major difference, though... MGM does remaster their films and license them out. Half of Shout Factory's output seems to be MGM films.

I'd argue that MGM is not remastering their films. They made a whole bunch of HD masters primarily for broadcast purpose (as well as for DVD masters) in the early 2000s - much of what we're seeing through Kino, Twilight Time, Shout/Scream, etc are older masters that weren't done to the best standards in the first place, and are outdated now. Sometimes a label like Shout will do a new scan, but just as often, they won't. And Twilight just works with whatever the studio has.

I think the difference is just that MGM has been more aggressive with accepting licensing offers than Paramount. Until recently, Warner was distributing Paramount catalog (a further sign that Paramount has all but given up). That deal is over so we may see more - but as an example, look at the John Wayne films Paramount is distributing for the Wayne family. Wayne titles still sell. Paramount has plenty that are DVD only, where HD masters are readily available and have been for years. They have everything they need on hand to bring them out on disc almost immediately, and yet, they have declined to do so. They're just not a functional studio anymore, and the catalog stuff has no perceived value to the people in charge.
 

Josh Steinberg

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Even the production side is barely functional.

Just before the release of Star Trek Beyond, Paramount announced a fourth reboot movie. The cast is all signed for it, and they were said to have a complete script. Chris Pine (who plays Kirk) has said that Paramount has just gone radio silent on him and his agent. He needs to know if and when they're making that movie so he can figure out the rest of his schedule, and Paramount won't return his calls. Zachary Quinto (Spock) and Karl Urban (McCoy) have all reported having similar experiences. They are signed to this sequel, each due to be paid several million dollars, and the agents can't even get their calls returned. They're not unknowns off the street trying for a big break. They're the stars of one the few franchises the studio has and they can't even get their bosses to tell them when they should be reporting for work. That doesn't sound like a well-oiled machine to me.
 

Bryan^H

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I thought Paramount made an insane amount of money for the distribution rights of Indiana Jones, Iron Man 3, and the Avengers.

Where did that money go?
 

Josh Steinberg

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The shareholders? Who knows? Disney bought out their distribution for future Indy films too, that was probably a decent amount of cash too.

(Edit: you mentioned Indy too. Oops)
 

cinemiracle

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The bitch of it is that scores of these films so far withheld from Blu-ray release in the U.S. have perfectly decent HD masters, ROMEO AND JULIET among them. France, in fact, has released this, as well as probably other countries:

https://www.amazon.fr/Roméo-Juliette-Blu-ray-Leonard-Whiting/dp/B00BY92V5I/ref=sr_1_6?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1497931278&sr=1-6&keywords=romeo+and+juliet

A bunch of other titles we in the U.S. have not gotten from Paramount are also out in Europe.

A SIMPLE PLAN (Germany): https://www.amazon.de/einfacher-Pla...&qid=1497931475&sr=1-1&keywords=a+simple+plan

CONQUEST OF SPACE
THE ELEPHANT MAN
THE NAKED PREY
WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE
and more.

Apparently Paramount is finding overseas licensing more lucrative than getting these out here in the U.S. *^%&!

ROMEO AND JULIET was released on bluray some time ago in Australia.
 
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Robin9

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We all heard the reports that Paramount might license out titles that have not previously been released on DVD. One title that is mysteriously never mentioned is The Scarlet Hour which was directed by Michael Curtiz and filmed in Vista Vision. Those two elements on their own make The Scarlet Hour imperative viewing. The then newcomer Carol Ohmart as a femme fatale is a third:

Scarlet Hour, The 2.jpg


I do hope someone like Kino or Olive gets hold of this film and puts out a really good disc.
 
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